'Abuse and harassment': Hospitality workers reveal concerning workplace conditions

There are three priorities for change to stamp the problems out

BY Dexter Tilo 09 Apr 2022

A "significant minority of workplaces" in the hospitality sector are non-compliant with workplace standards, a new study from the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) has revealed.

The study Voices from the Front Line gathered 396 hospitality employees, who revealed that they are subjected to various worrying workplace conditions among a minority of employers.

"The majority of employers are doing the right thing, but there is a significant minority of workplaces that are failing to comply with employment law and failing to provide decent work conditions," said David Williamson, lead author of the study, in a statement.

The most reported situation by employees in the survey is not receiving training in their jobs, which was reported by 81% of the nearly 400 respondents.

It was followed by health and safety risks in the workplace, which was cited by 69% of the employees.

Other workplace violations and conditions exposed by the employees in the report include:

Experiencing or witnessing harassment in the workplace (49%)
Not reporting harassment incidents (49%)
Not getting opportunities for promotion (48%)
Being in temporary/casual employment (29%)
Not receiving the correct rest breaks (22%)
Not getting time off or correct pay for working statutory holidays (22%)
Not getting the correct holiday pay (22%)
Not receiving the minimum wage (18%)
Not signing an employment agreement before starting work (16%)
Not receiving the correct payslips (13%)

On these issues, Williamson said it is time for sector to start addressing the concerning issues in time for its post-COVID rebuild.

Recommendations

The report from the AUT also outened several recommendations, zeroing in on the following "three priorities for change":

Driving out the minority of bad employers
Ensuring decent employment practices in the industry
Changing the image of hospitality work

To weed out the bad employers, the report suggested the implementation of better systems that would enforce employment conditions in a timely and effective manner.

It also recommended a "name and shame" strategy for organisations representing employers in order to "support most of their members who are doing the right thing."

According to the report, having an employer ranking system for customers would help them make better choices to support working condition.

For the second priority, the study said that pay and conditions, training and development, and enabling employees to speak up would ensure decent employment practices in the industry.

Succeeding in this second priority would bring in success for third point, which is cleaning up the negative view on hospitality work to eventually overcome recruitment and retention problems, said the report.